


After Midnight

by Ylevihs



Series: How Not to Fall [11]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: ABBA, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Consensual Sex, Deep Throating, Established Relationship, M/M, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Retribution Spoilers, Slight Overstimulation, anal penetration, brief reference to past sexual assault, inappropriate use of psychic abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 21:09:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18677449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylevihs/pseuds/Ylevihs
Summary: That's not how psychic abilities work. That's not how any of this works.





	After Midnight

He had been given a gift and Richard had no intention of letting it go to waste. His hands roved slowly, relearning the dips and curves and edges they’d only been able to study in brief before. A landscape that had been given only cursory explorations before was now stretched out before him, ready to be mapped and pinned down for posterity. And future expeditions. 

Daniel lay beneath him, warm and radiating out a baseline of mellow, unrestrained lust. Richard focused, keen to the spikes and swoops of approval when his fingertips played over Daniel’s ribs, his nipples, down lower to press and swirl over the jut of his hip bones. Back up. He could feel, somewhere in the distance, Daniel’s hands running up over his arms. Richard pushed his own physical sensations to the side for the moment; this evening was not about him and the way Daniel was dragging his fingertips slowly over the edges of his scapula, rolling along the tendons he found there, oh, could be. Enjoyed. 

Later. He gave himself a mental shake. They could be enjoyed later. 

Instead, Richard shouldered his way through the flutter and flurry of Daniel’s thoughts. They danced around him, spiraling when the gentle press of his fingertips turned to the blunt edge of his nails, tracing the borders of Daniel’s areolas. Obligingly he spent a little more time there, coaxing the tender flesh into hard buds. Daniel’s thoughts, although still light and languid, pointed out another part of Daniel’s anatomy that Richard should pay attention to. Hardening. 

“Eager,” Richard teased. Daniel didn’t rise to the bait, looking up at him with hazy affection that made Richard’s heart clench dangerously. Was it still dangerously? Absolutely. The potent cocktail of desire and love could be lethal. Richard was certainly drunk on it, but in all fairness Daniel seemed to be too. The hips beneath his own rose and bucked firmly, once, to make a point. He snorted. “Patience,” he said, enjoying the way Daniel’s face twisted to pout. “All good things, you know,” 

“Since when have you ever been patient?” Daniel muttered; eight points of pressure made their way up until they buried themselves Richard’s hair. Stroking and pulling. Richard shivered in a bone deep way that he knew Daniel would notice. 

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Richard feigned innocence as best he could and the way he could feel the grin coming before it hit Daniel’s face was wonderful. “I have always been the perfect image of self-restraint,” the grin widened and, goodness, he was beautiful like that. Blonde hair disheveled on the pillow, thrown loose like a halo, eyes half lidded, lips slightly kiss-swollen, blush from the heat and the feeling of another body hard to his own high on his cheekbones. Another sharp buck and Richard had to jerk to keep himself from thrusting back. 

“Cheater,” he shook his head to dislodge the fingers rubbing delightful profanities over his scalp. 

Right.

“Make me stop,” Daniel innocent eyes twitched dangerously. Oh? Oh. 

Focus. Daniel wasn’t going to make this easy on him, he had to focus. 

Richard shifted his weight to his left side, freeing up his right arm to better play over Daniel’s torso. Sliding over the rise and fall of his pectorals, up over collar bones, the firm column of his neck. Wing beats, minuscule and whisper soft, against the edges of Richard’s mind when his fingers traced Daniel’s windpipe. It wasn’t fear. More…a warning of sorts. A ‘here lies danger’. Richard leaned in and replaced his fingertips with his mouth, teeth bracketing either side of Daniel’s esophagus. 

Abandon all hope, ye who—.

Daniel moaned and Richard felt the vibrations on his tongue, low and long. Pelvis rolling up and finding nothing but air to rut against. It wasn’t quite a bite. Not yet anyway, but it was pressure and heat and Daniel’s adam’s apple moved under Richard’s mouth with the excited gulp. 

Richard elected his hand as ambassador and sent it south for peace talks, slipping passed the border of Daniel’s waistband. Movement hindered by the fabric of the Daniel’s boxers, Richard opted to let his fingers drag over the velvet skin instead of wrapping fully around the erection. Gliding and tapping and. Daniel made a noise in the back of his throat. He both liked the teasing and hated it. He wanted Richard to do something, anything, besides ghost along his nerve endings. Pressing the flat of his palm firm against Daniel’s cock, he pinned the organ gently to Daniel’s stomach, running the tip of his thumb lightly under the glans. It twitched heavily under the attention.

Richard stopped sucking a bright red welt onto Daniel’s throat and kissed up his chin, trailing saliva and hot air until he reached Daniel’s lips. 

“Daniel?” he kept his mouth hovering, barely making any contact at all. Daniel bridged the gap, unwilling to let Richard keep up the temptation for long. The kiss was short. Sweet. All lips and softness until it was all heat and desire and. 

“Yeah?” and the hard slickness of Daniel’s teeth pulling at Richard’s lower lip. The little zip of pleasure from it settled at the base of Richard’s skull, content to put down roots and start homesteading. Richard tilted his head back until the flesh popped from free from Daniel’s bite and sent the resulting shiver to wait its turn in his groin. 

“You remember that little thing you asked if I could do, earlier?” 

That had been an interesting conversation. It had started with Richard explaining the very basics of telepathy and ended with the confirmation that, yes, if he wanted to, he could plant and remove certain thoughts. Feelings. Daniel had very quietly asked if Richard had ever done something like that to him. Not thinking of anything grim but still cautious with his wonder. Richard had never and admitted as much, relieved beyond comprehension that Daniel took his words at face value. He hadn’t ever planted anything in Daniel’s head, that time he’d thought about making Daniel drop him notwithstanding, nor did he ever intend to.

Until Daniel’s thoughts, speeding along in a wind tunnel of his own design, had asked if Richard could make people feel things that weren’t there. Or feel things that were there, but more. And only a dead man would have been able to miss Daniel’s meaning. And still Richard had asked, quiet and brimming with a terrified sort of excitement, if Daniel would ever want him to. 

If Daniel would ever trust him enough with that sort of access.

Every butterfly in Daniel’s mind shivered at once, wings trembling. Searching and remembering and finding and. 

“Yeah.” Thrumming with excitement. Tension. Nervous lust. 

“Would you like t--,”

“Yes,” Daniel flushed at his own response. Needy and wanton. He cleared his throat and Richard couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over his face. Below him Daniel smiled back, embarrassed but delighted all the same. “Yeah, I’m…I’d like to try that,” a hand found the back of Richard’s neck and pulled him in for a deeper kiss and Richard felt every hair on his body stand on end. 

They were. Okay.

They were really going to do this. Daniel was going to let him into his head.

Okay.

_Don’t mess it up._

Richard reclaimed his tongue from between Daniel’s teeth and shifted so that he was laying fully on his side, pressed up against Daniel without being on top of him. A little security in case he went a little too deep and his body went to dead weight. 

It was easy to slip through the gossamer thoughts, one feather light idea at a time, until Richard found what he was looking for. Daniel’s mind shimmered around him, parting with only the gentlest sighs of resistance. A little tap here, a little push there. A little. Ah. Almost there. He let his hands sink in deeper, feeling summertime pop rocks on his skin, delirious low oxygen high in his lungs, bobbing on the wind currents and free falling adrenaline. Just to the right, down. Lower towards the ground. There it was. Heartbeat in his throat, bubbles in his veins. 

Daniel’s nervous system, lit up like bright noon sunshine on water, glittered beneath him. From there it was all lighting and shadow puppetry. 

Richard pulled back out of Daniel’s head, shaking off the dizziness, and found himself pulled close to Daniel’s chest. He squirmed, getting a look up at the face where. Ah, good. At where Daniel’s pupils were blown wide, mouth dropped open to pant lightly, face and chest growing redder by the second. The pink tip of his tongue slid out to wet his lips.

“Doing alright?” Richard asked. He hadn’t fiddled with much, but that didn’t mean that what he had changed wouldn’t be too overwhelming. It shouldn’t have been, but. Changing perceptions was always tricky; making hallucinations that could last required a deft touch. Visuals were the easiest to make and break, audible ones were funner, though. Physical ones were the hardest. 

They also had the biggest payout. 

Daniel nodded, swallowed hard, wordless. “Not too much?” Richard pressed, keeping a few tendrils lolling in the breeze of his thoughts to make sure. Keeping tabs. A shake of the head. “You’re sure?” he was teasing again, reveling in how Daniel’s thoughts swelled up in a gust of wind. 

“ _Yes_ ,” and despite the pleasured rough to his voice, he still sounded a mile high. The arm pinning Richard to Daniel’s chest tightened its hold and Richard could feel desperation rolling off Daniel in waves. It settled along his skin like sea salt on the breeze. Itchy and begging for relief. “ _Fuck_ , Richie,”

“Not yet,” Richard sent back, shimmying free from Daniel’s arms, emboldened by the success of his tinkering. “I told you, patience,” Daniel’s response was a weak, sharp exhale. Not quite a laugh at Richard’s not quite a joke. 

“Richard, come on,” it was practically a whine, not that Richard would ever hold the sound against him. Every dial in Daniel’s pleasure center had been notched up a degree or three—each touch lighting up nerve receptors like bolts of lightning. As though they’d been at each other for hours instead of dry humping like teenagers for the past fifteen minutes. When Richard pressed his mouth back down onto Daniel’s, he moaned for him beautifully. Hands, a bit rougher, more desperate for contact, pulled his weight forward to press onto Daniel’s chest. The kiss turned uncoordinated and slick, teeth spending as much time worrying at each other’s lips as their tongues did slipping over one another. 

Richard felt Daniel’s right hand slide a trail of fire down to press the small of his back in close. Felt the flurry of thoughts, decisions. The hand fell further down to cup Richard’s ass and hold it still so his own hips could thrust upwards. Once. So very obviously too keyed up to wait much longer. Twice. Squeezing tighter and. Oh, that couldn’t go on like _that_. Richard wriggled his hips away, drawing out a disappointed noise from Daniel’s core, and trailed his mouth down to nip at Daniel’s jaw, his earlobe. Slid the tip of his tongue along the shell of Daniel’s ear to whisper. 

“You’re so beautiful like this,” thoughts darting, diving, in no mood for. 

“If you really thought so you’d be fucking me already,” which tore a startled laugh out of Richard’s lungs. Bright and clean. Helpless. 

“Alright, loverboy, hold on,” he leaned back over to kiss Daniel’s lips—he meant to move away and was stopped by Daniel’s teeth holding him still, tongue dragging him back as it plied its way deeper into his mouth. Two hands slipping sharply under his clothes and were kneading and pulling at his backside, stretching at the waistband of his sweatpants. Richard rose up onto his knees and shimmied back, out of reach of Daniel’s fingers for the moment. He slid the grey sweats off, almost losing his balance trying to kick them off into the corner of the room. 

There was a part of Daniel’s mind still coherent enough to want to snicker at the sight. 

That would have to be dealt with. 

Sooner rather than later it seemed, as he could feel Daniel’s eyes on his skin as he moved to the bedside dresser to pull out a condom and lube. Nightmares to buy, the both of them. Richard had been sorely tempted to wipe the cashier’s memory after the way the bored young woman had lifted her eyebrows and snapped her gum and sneered ‘fun night ahead, huh?’.

Daniel was watching him closer and his thoughts were too loud to keep from picking up on. Taking in scars, first and foremost. Not focusing too much on the tattoos. The lines of his spine and scapula, the muscles of his core, the swell of his.

Ah, well.

His. 

Inspecting him and. And again that vague, bleary sense of approval that made Richard’s skin crawl in a way that wasn’t disgust. Unwelcome in its growing familiarity. Daniel saw him and liked what he saw. That tidbit of knowledge snuggled in deep to a mental armchair and put its feet up, making itself at home. Munching on popcorn as the approval shifted somewhere more lewd and Richard glanced over his shoulder to see Daniel stroking himself through his boxers. Eyes darting up to lock with his own. Twin fantasies were being offered up in the mental cinema. One of Richard riding Daniel and the other of Daniel being driven hard into the bed by Richard between his thighs. Richard almost dropped his hard won supplies. He managed to toss them onto the bed next to Daniel. 

“Get over here,” low and already breathless. There wasn’t a single fiber of Richard’s being that would have been able to say ‘no’. Part of him wanted to try to crawl onto the bed. Another, far more reasonable side said that there was no way to do a sexy slink when he was six and half feet tall and ganglier than an octopus. He settled for awkwardly clambering up and settling down between Daniel’s knees. Which should have been easier, but the instant Richard’s knees hit the bedspread Daniel’s hips were lifting, hands ripping off his boxers. Desperate to be naked. Desperate to be touched. He couldn’t get them all the way off which Richard settling between his ankles without kicking and. 

“Still doing oka--,”

“RichieIsweartogod,” his mind wasn’t distressed. Annoyed. Eager. Still excited about how this-would this feel different? 

Richard sent his hands out to help slide the remaining clothing over Daniel’s semi-trapped legs. Then ran his fingertips back up slowly, thumbs tracing along his inner thighs. A whirl of activity from his thoughts, working overtime and taking what was only a tiny sensation and magnifying it until Daniel swore in a whisper and bucked. Spread his legs so that Richard could slot his shoulders between them. 

Daniel didn’t moan with the first lick of Richard’s tongue up the length of his cock. Or the second. He did inhale so sharply and suddenly that Richard could hear the air getting caught in his throat. The breath held until Richard’s mouth reached the head, swirling saliva and precum together and only barely closing his lips around it. Daniel made an animal noise and his entire body rolled, seeking wet heat. When Richard sucked, light and soft, he felt Daniel’s thoughts shiver. Scatter and regroup and scatter again. Unfocused. The sensations the nerves were sending to them didn’t match the reactions Daniel’s brain was trying to experience. It was easy to lay off those well intentioned ideas and promote the lazier ones to management positions. Those who were more than content to believe that a few passes of his tongue was almost orgasmic. Almost too much to handle. A quick wriggle of his tongue and Daniel finally exhaled, long and shuddering in his lungs. 

He started talking. If it could be called talking. Babbling anything that came to mind, creating almost an echo effect as Richard could catch most of the thoughts before they made their way into the hearing world. 

“Oh, god, like that, right…like that,” Richard shifted his weight to an elbow, propping himself up enough for his other hand to stroke and fondle at Daniel’s balls. Press gently at his perineum. Pressed less gently because the wingbeats of Daniel’s thoughts were growing frantic and the jolt of actual, real, hard sensation made him yelp. Richard wrapped his fingers around the base of Daniel’s erection and let the next thrust guide Daniel further into his mouth. Another desperate noise and goodness.

Those really were wonderful to hear, weren’t they? Richard’s ego squirreled them away to be enjoyed later at his leisure. 

Something pressed into the small of Richard’s back and he distantly recognized them as Daniel’s ankles coming to trap him in. There was. Oh? His name. And. “ _Please_ ,” what exactly Daniel was asking for could have been any of a hundred things flitting through his head at that moment. None of them settled. He wanted more of anything Richard was willing to give and he wanted it yesterday. 

Richard unwrapped his fingers and pressed his hand, palm flat, to the surrounding skin, crook of his thumb and index finger cradling the base of Daniel’s cock. An interesting combination of his name and profanity made its way out of Daniel’s mouth as he began bobbing his head to a steady rhythm. It may have been mean to keep his ministrations as slow and teasing as he was, but it would have been crueler to drive Daniel up too quickly. 

Daniel clearly disagreed, pelvis rolling with every drawback, body doing its damndest to keep itself lodged in Richard’s mouth. After a moment of indecision—keep it going or—Richard slid down until his lips met the skin of the back of his hand. Back up before the incoming thrust could hurt his throat. Back down and held it, followed through the jerking roll even as his jaw creaked in protest. Daniel’s cock bumped the back of his throat and Richard fought back the instinct to choke. Held. His gag reflex whined loudly before slinking off to a corner to lick its wounds. The Ranger in his mouth whined, the thigh muscles framing Richard’s shoulders tensing with the effort of remaining still. Desperate to thrust forward and barely staving off the urge. 

It would have been a laughably, were his mouth not full, easy switch to flip.

Dull edged fingernails scoured along Richard’s scalp, threading through the curls, before clenching into a harsh fist and pulling. Richard’s conscious mind set a cruise control and excused itself into a familiar back seat, keeping an eye on proceedings while his body went a shade off from slack and Daniel fucked into his throat. Any reserve Daniel might have had left after Richard’s poking and prodding were gone, body operating under false instinct orders. The nerve endings themselves all said that this was nice, sure, absolutely, but they weren’t sure what all the fuss upstairs was about. The chemical coding in Daniel’s brain that Richard had hacked said that Daniel was roughly three strokes away from cumming at any given time and he could make it if he.

If he just. Daniel’s other hand cemented itself to the back of Richard’s neck and gripped, torso crunching, upper body lifting off the bedspread in the curl and then further still, gravity’s tethers falling away from his shoulders. Richard jostled his way back into the driver’s seat of his body, needing to be behind the wheel for this next bit and hoping he could handle the hairpin turn. Steering wheel in his hands and Daniel hot and heavy and twitching down his throat and the fingers. Of dead memories poked their way through the soil of Richard’s senses—caustic chlorine clean tubing burning against mucus membranes ripping out upwards won’t be needing that right now latex gloves the hinge of his jaw metal between his molars disgruntled interns clammy skin sweat. 

He overcorrected. Didn’t scream, kept that quiet. Didn’t clamp his jaw shut tight against the intrusion, thank god. Did make a noise halfway between a gurgle and a sob, hopefully lost in the current of Daniel cursing and weakly following through with jerking half thrusts. Did manage to keep from crying outright, even as Daniel slipped from out of his mouth with a disgustingly wet sound. His swallowing did nothing to help the nausea rising up from his stomach. The hands in his hair loosened and began petting at him. Stroking through the tangles, oblivious. 

Richard coughed and gasped, ragged and phlegmy, mouth pressed to the junction where Daniel’s thigh met the rest of his body. A thick slime of saliva and. Other. Connected his chin to Daniel, growing cold in the air. His cheeks were wet with tears. Sounds. Daniel talking? Daniel making noises, at least. The fingers in his hair drawing aimless soothing patterns. It took somewhere between a minute and three weeks for Richard to feel like he finally caught his breath. He focused. He was in his apartment. His own apartment in his own bedroom in his own bed. The body under him was Hera-Daniel. Daniel. Not Danny yet, but maybe someday soon. If Richard could ever manage to.

Focus. The night was not supposed to be about him, it was for Daniel. _Keep it together, man_. 

Richard started listening again right around the time Daniel whispered. “Whoa,” 

“Yeah?” and his voice was all broken ceramic—sharp edges and rough crags. Daniel’s laugh was dandelion fluff on a spring morning. Richard glanced up the length of the well-muscled torso. Rising and falling steadily. Daniel was staring at the ceiling, pink and glistening in the low light, breathing deep. One of his hands left Richard’s hair and stroked its thumb along the curve of his cheekbone. 

“Yeah. Holy _shit_ ,” he peeked in and. Good. The changes he made were slowly returning to their baselines, taking Daniel down from what should have been a solid contender for the top ten of his life and back to ‘very pleasant way to spend the evening’. His hair was tugged again. Up. Wanting up. Upness. Richard should be up. “C’mere,” After a moment of signal confusion Richard’s limbs finally responded and he was able to crawl up to Daniel’s level without driving an elbow into his ribs or kneeing him in the crotch. He ended up almost seated in Daniel’s lap, the other man’s torso floating off the bed in what would have been a very impressive position for the average person. Richard’s mind caught up just before their faces were level. 

“Hold on, I’m gross,” he needed to wipe his face on something, sure that he looked as putrid and vile as he had just felt. 

Daniel made a noise of agreement, a “Mhmm,” and the hand in his hair didn’t draw away, instead pulling him over the rest of the way and. Richard’s mind stuttered a little at the urgency of Daniel’s tongue, driving itself between his lips and filling his mouth. Running along his teeth and tickling across the roof of his mouth and before Richard could really gather himself enough to kiss back, slipping out. Licking at his lips and chin and whispering against his skin. “It’s pretty hot,” not talking about the temperature not talking about.

“Oh,” was the only noise he could make because, really, what was he supposed to say to that? Slick and sticky and covered in. He didn’t get to think more on it, feeling Daniel’s hand slide down his back and squeeze his ass again and being forced to cut off a moan. Daniel wasn’t deliberately projecting his thoughts but he hardly needed to, picturing himself returning the favor in stunning and filthy detail. “No,” Daniel’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Bowed in confusion. “I’m not done with you yet,” rose again. He let out a nervous chuckle. 

“I…might need another minute? Or twenty,” the hand on Richard’s ass stopped squeezing and went to rubbing before coming up to press in the small of his back. Warm and solid and real. Forcing Richard’s cock against Daniel’s stomach and making Richard swallow hard. 

“You sure about that?” Richard couldn’t make him hard again so quickly without making it sting afterwards, but he could relight the fire in Daniel’s belly, stoking the heat once. Twice. Felt the body under his shifting. Reacting to the offered image of itself, writhing on Richard’s. 

“Ohhhhkay,” Richard felt his hand return south, the groping more insistent. Trying to move the form in his lap to rut against him. 

“Okay?”

“Yes,” and Daniel was nodding, catching his lower lip between his teeth and pulling. “I’m…I’m okay with that,” exhaling breathless and so needy sounding that it sent a shiver of something entirely unwholesome through Richard’s core. Without consciously ordering it to Richard’s hand snatched up the thin tube and foil packet he’d thrown onto the bed earlier. His fingers fumbled with the packaging on the condom, wrapper twisting in on itself rather than tearing. “Here,” Daniel reached out and plucked it from his hands, bringing it up to his grinning mouth and ripping it open with his teeth in a clean, smooth motion. Not smug. Not teasing. Solving a problem the quickest way he knew how. 

A reedy noise made its way from Richard’s chest. Daniel didn’t return the condom to him, shifting the man in his lap and, after a moment of mental adjustments, slid it cool and slick over Richard’s erection. The sensation of Daniel’s hand running over him faded. He was busy plunging back into Daniel’s head, far more liberal this time with his alterations. Richard’s body felt the brush of disorientation but he was too deep in the flier’s head and vertigo held no fears for Daniel. His mind resettled alarmingly quickly, compensating for the change in an instant. Daniel had his shoulders back to the bed, letting himself come down to give Richard an easier angle, thighs spread wide to welcome his hips. 

At least the cap on the lube opened without a struggle. 

Sliding the cool slick between his fingers, Richard did his best to bring it up to body temperature before pressing the pad of his pointer finger against the tight ring of muscle between Daniel’s cheeks. Not quite pushing in, instead taking his time to test the resistance. The press back. Still slightly gummy from his earlier orgasm, and with Richard’s influence running rampant through the pleasure center of his brain again, Daniel’s body had no negative opinions to offer about the intrusion. Richard’s first finger slid in to his second knuckle with barely a flutter and a soft moan. He pumped in a few times, acclimating the body below him to the sensation and feeling the muscles around it relax further until he caught sight of Daniel’s hands starting to pull the bedsheets into his fists. Keeping himself from floating up. Added a second finger just to watch Daniel’s face, eyelids fluttered shut and lips parted and. Too beautiful. 

He slid his fingers free, immediately aware of just how blistering hot Daniel was going to feel around him by how cold the digits were in the ambient air. He didn’t bother warming the lube he slicked over himself, no amount of chill was going to hamper the throbbing in his dick. Richard took a deep, steadying breath, shaking away unwanted memories, driving all of his attention onto the man before him. Daniel. Who he loved. Who had no reason to take him back and yet had. Who was rolling his pelvis up and making low noises in his diaphragm and who wanted Richard so badly he could feel it in his teeth.

One hand guided himself and the other cupped the swell of Daniel’s right thigh, using it for leverage. 

Daniel’s head rolled back with Richard’s press in, too gentle and shallow to be called a real thrust, and gasped. The pace was plodding and steady, working a little bit more of himself into that bone achingly wonderful heat and press with each slide inwards. Maybe too much fiddling on Richard’s part this time, the sensations blowing off of Daniel like steam said that he was close already. Felt the tug of every twitch like it was a full stroke, hitting deep and in exactly the right spot to make him see stars. Richard shivered and pulled his mind as far into his own space as he could. Losing himself right now wouldn’t be good for either of them. Even if it was all smoke and mirrors Daniel’s body wouldn’t be able to tell the difference and going too hard too soon really may have consequences.

Fingers in his hair again, pulling. Hand on his hip, tight and clenching tighter and pulling him forward as though it could bring him deeper than anatomy could allow. A moment of indecision and. Richard began thrusting in earnest, clenching his jaw against the physical tug and slide and _fu_ —that felt so good. Still too slow to be. Daniel rocked against the movement and Richard almost had to catch himself on the backslide. Richard paused, earning a frantic scrabble from the hand in his hair, and readjusted himself. Pushing up and back, reaching behind him and hooking his arms under Daniel’s legs. Hands wrapping around the base of Daniel’s thighs to drag him back to meet Richard’s hips with each surge forward.

One shifting thrust and then another shift with next thrust in, Daniel squirming and gasping his approval and. Getting closer to. Daniel’s back bowed, hips canting forward hard and desperate, pleasured profanity on his lips, fingernails digging in deep enough to break the skin on Richard’s hip and dragging. 

Ah. There it was. 

Daniel said as much, harsh and commanding and in a half drugged chant. “Fuck, right there. Don’t stop,” and who was Richard to deny him? He angled his hips as best he could with Daniel’s hands clutching him. “Don’t stop,” Richard rolled his weight forward, putting more and more strength behind each thrust until the bedframe creaked its protests and then screamed them. Words muddled into gibberish. He leaned in, allowing his arm a little more reach to slip and slide over the semi soft flesh of Daniel’s cock. 

He could taste the distress in the air melt away quick and slick, giving itself over to swelling, throbbing, too much, too soon, blood obediently filling and hardening and, “Oh god, don’t stop,” Daniel’s voice was straining, close to a cry. Moans higher than usual and sticking in his chest. The hand in Richard’s hair flew down to his forearm, neither hindering nor helping the pump of Richard’s hand. The messages mainlined from his brain were red and flashing and high priority. 

Too many projects at once. Trying to move his hand in time with his thrusts and keep them angled just right and keep the tide of falsely heightened pleasure from growing too strong and drowning in it and. Sparkling rivets of heat and electricity started in his lower back, urging him forward, harder. Faster. Richard lowered his shoulders to press his forehead onto Daniel’s, breathing ragged and sore throated. Their eyes met briefly before Daniel’s rolled back just a bit into his head. Daniel’s face crumpled, almost ugly in his ecstasy, coming hard and dry and shivering. Richard couldn’t help but press an open lipped kiss to his cheek while he came. 

He also allowed himself another indulgence, dripping in just enough to catch some of the altered sensation and came before he even registered the buildup, almost yelping at the sudden release. He didn’t have the wherewithal to try and follow through, hips stuttering to a hard freeze while he spasmed and twitched hard inside Daniel’s clenched body. The aftershocks of it ran up and down his spine, making his limbs feel heavy. His shoulders dropped entirely, the position forcing him to slip sloppily out of Daniel. Daniel who was shaking, trying to catch his breath, wrapping his arms tightly around Richard and bringing him in close to his searing heat like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. Still too much sensation. Richard gave himself a mental shake, enough to reach in and smooth things back to baseline. Average. Feeling the release of tension under him, muscles unbunching. 

Like sighing with an entire human body at once. Relief. Enough to make Richard’s eyelids droop. Lips on his cheek and it took everything left in him to turn his head and return the kiss. 

“Holy shit, Richie,” there was a tired clarity to his voice now that a psychic pervert wasn’t messing with his brain. 

Exhaustion started pulling at every inch of Richard’s body, convincing him to rock back and onto his side still half held in Daniel’s arms. And. Ugh, gross. He reached between his own legs and peeled off the filled condom. Contemplated throwing it before acknowledging that his aim was too shit and he’d hate himself in the morning and. Richard shook off Daniel and rose on slightly shaky legs and made the two step journey to throw the disgusting thing away. “You’re okay?” he asked once he made it back to the bed, drawn in like a moth to a sunlamp to Daniel’s embrace. 

It was a pointless question—he could feel that Daniel would be okay. Sore and a little dizzy maybe, but fine otherwise. Still, it mattered to ask. 

“Am I? I’m better than okay,” and, ah. Daniel was settling back as well, a different sort of sated fatigue wavering off of him. “That was,” he blew out a sound between his lips that may have been an attempt to whistle. Richard carefully rode the swell of pride at that, let himself feel and enjoy it before sliding back down. How his forehead ended up on Daniel’s shoulder he’d never know. Couldn’t remember his hand coming up to rest on the flier’s chest, but could clearly see it there, rising and falling. Couldn’t say how or when or where in his body the bubble started, lifting and gaining momentum until it clogged his throat and forced its way from between his lips. 

“Love you, Danny,”

Fluttering. A kiss. “I love you, too, Richie,” 

\------

The thin noise coming through the wall was slightly familiar, in a dulled and distant movie-soundtrack sort of way. Daniel rolled onto his side and almost winced; the consequences of the night seeped into the tender spaces between his legs. His loins hadn’t caught fire yet, but he was going to be burning in the morning for sure. Sore and raw. Wisps of something clotted and cool still blew over the nerve endings every few minutes. He wondered how long Richard’s influence in his head would last—the ghosts of pleasure were still working to keep latent pain at bay. 

He swallowed the grumble in his throat at the sound coming from the other room. Or, rather the attempt at not making much sound from the other room. The music was faint—if he’d actually been asleep he doubted he would have heard it at all. Daniel strained his ears and could hear the dull thud of bare feet on tile. The song was ending and with it the sounds of movement slowed. Stopped. 

A lull of silence.

The next song’s opening notes began, a group of singers declaring it on the edge of hearing to be half passed twelve and. Daniel lifted himself out of bed, stretching the half sleep from his limbs and doing his best to be quiet. Richard was listening to music and, if the steadiness of the noises could be trusted, dancing to it as well. 

Okay. Be cool. Don’t let him know that you’re up. Don’t think about it. 

Which was easier said than done. Especially when he reached the door and palmed it open with all the care of a man disarming a bomb. The more the opening widened the more  
Daniel could hear. Richard was still out of sight but now Daniel could hear, faint and oh, oh not his imagination? Singing along. 

Daniel’s hindbrain knew the song, his lips didn’t know the words but he felt like his tongue could maybe get the gist of it if he heard the chorus. 

“Movie stars on the end of a rainbow with a,” the voice trailed, turning to humming. 

After a moment without a sighting, Daniel let his hands push the door all the way open. It swung away soundlessly to reveal Richard, a full room away from him, with his back to the doorway Daniel was floating in. Standing in the kitchen, naked save for his wiener dog patterned boxers. Hips swinging from side to side, a full half beat behind, head bobbing just as out of time. If the way he was holding his arms meant anything, he was singing into—yep, there it was. Richard rotated, mime-singing into a pair of dirty disposable chopsticks. His other hand held a now-empty container of left over Chinese takeout. 

He was whispering the song, swaying out of rhythm and clearly not bothered by it, over to the trashcan where he dumped both the container and utensils down in time with a musical interlude. Enjoying himself. He. Huh, he had a nice singing voice, faint though it was. It would probably sound nicer singing something besides pop music. 

“There’s not a soul out there, no one to hear my prayer,”

Daniel was floating out of the bedroom and into the open before he could think to stop himself. Which, hey, probably worked in his favor anyway. The cheap stereo speaker was on the kitchen counter itself and if he squinted in the low light he could almost. Make it. Out?

“Gimme, gimme, gimme, a man after midnight,” Richard hushed along with the song; Daniel watched his hand reach over and flick off the power. “By ABBA,” he said louder, “and you should be embarrassed not to know it immediately,” his tone was matter of fact, like he was discussing the weather and someone had asked what rain was. 

If Daniel had had his feet on the ground he would have frozen. Caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A foot in the air, he flinched a little. Richard still had his back to him, which meant he’d heard his thoughts rather than his movement. That was going to take some getting used to—they hadn’t had time before. 

“Sorry for waking you up,” Richard continued, only half turning to face him. With his eyes on him, Daniel could feel something like balm smoothing over the soreness in his limbs. That was. That was also going to take some time to adjust to, but he imagined it would come quicker. It was certainly welcome. “Feeling alright?” Richard crossed his arms over his chest and from the way his shoulders rolled in it was clear he was still trying to hide his skin from too close an inspection. The shoulders rolled tighter because Richard could tell that Daniel could tell because oh, yeah, right, idiot he’s still inside your head. 

“You didn’t wake me up,” Daniel said, honestly. Wouldn’t be much point to lying would there? He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, choosing to start there and work forward. “And I’m fine, a little,” he lingered, not sure of how much he wanted to go into what was aching and where. 

“Sore,” Richard provided, not asking. His arms unfolded as he crossed the distance to where Daniel was hovering. Daniel flushed.

“Yeah,” in a good way. In a _very_ good way. Richard cleared his throat a little too loudly at that thought and Daniel couldn’t help but smile. 

“I, uh,” and there was absolutely a smile playing hesitantly around on Richard’s face, too, like a new kid unsure of how welcome they were at recess. “There’s still leftovers in the fridge if you want. I can’t really cook well enough to offer you a real breakfast, but I can make coffee?”

“I can wait until morning,” Daniel drifted closer and enjoyed Richard’s eyes following the movement. Those things could be deadly when they wanted to be; he liked it when it felt like they were only for him. Richard’s expression shifted to something Daniel couldn’t recognize, and then he licked his lips, arms unfolding. 

“It is morning. It’s nearly eleven,”

“Eleven?” oh christ, was he supposed to go into work today? 

“Mhm,” a pause as Richard turned the tiny stereo around to look at the display. “Ten fifty-three. But I have it on good authority that things have been quiet today,”

“Yeah?” Mad Dog certainly wasn’t out wreaking havoc. Or. “Ortega called?” he felt the wince in his voice.

“Ortega calls me every day,” Richard shrugged amiably. Of course he did. Daniel knew that. “I told him you weren’t feeling well and that I was playing doctor—it’ll tickle him enough that he won’t let Steel get on your case for calling out for the day,” Daniel tried not to think about Richard doting on him and failed. Horribly. The way the corners of Richard’s mouth deepened and his hand came up to hide the smile showed that much. Richard bit at his thumbnail and the once—er, twice—over he was giving Daniel was almost coy. 

That soothing, cool gel to a sunburn feeling was stronger in the wake of Richard’s gaze. The hand not at his mouth drifted down and flicked the ‘on’ button of the stereo. A hint of static and then ABBA was back, crooning for a man to take the shadows away.


End file.
